Rahul Raj

Rahul Raj
Background information
Origin	Cochin, Kerala, India
Genres	Film scores, soundtracks, albums
Occupation(s)	Composer, orchestrator, conductor, record producer, music director, singer, arranger, programmer
Instruments	Piano, keyboards, MIDI Master keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, drums
Years active	2007–present
Labels	Various
Website	rahul-raj.com

Rahul Raj is an Indian composer. He has composed and produced original scores and soundtracks for Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil movies.

Early life

Rahul Raj was born on 17 March in Cochin to Advocate E. Thankappan and N. S. Kunjoonjamma. His schooling was in Bhavans Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara, Cochin. He has one sister, Rehna Raj. From the age of 6, he was trained in Mridangam (South Indian Percussion instrument) and Carnatic Music. He graduated as an IT Engineer from CUSAT, Cochin and later on pursued courses such as CCNP and CCIE in Bangalore ILloka networks, before moving to London.^[1][2]

During his stint in London, he had undergone training in Electronic Sound Production. He helped Pradeep Menon, a UK-based Indian businessman, remix a Tamil Ayappa record that was originally produced, composed and sung by Pradeep Menon and Shashi Kumar in 1985. The devotional album produced in the UK, Canada and India is titled Sabari Beats.^[3] It was released in November 2002 by Super recording in Tamil Nadu. Noted musicians like Pravin Mani, Saroja, and Kamalakar were featured. This launched Rahul Raj's career. He also arranged another song for Pradeep Menon called "Krishna Krishna" with percussionist Sivamani and James Asher from UK.^[4] He is married to Miriam, a German national and has a daughter Akshaine, who was born in 2012.

Career

On returning to India, he composed more than 100 jingles for commercials in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu. Apart from that, he composed original themes for many television productions, including shows for Asianet and Amrita TV.^[5]

Rahul Raj performing on Friedrich Stoll Berlin, a piano built in 1920.

In 2003, he composed the anthem Lokaha for Amrithavarsam 50, which was later used as the theme song for Amrita TV. He also composed Malayalam albums during the period, which include En Jeevane, which was shot completely in the United States by producer–director Tom George Kolath. The song "Pularmanjupol Nee" from the album, rendered by Karthik and Sujatha, become an evergreen hit.

He was given the opportunity to compose the logo theme music for the show 50 Years of Malayalam Film Music with Padma Bhusan Dr. K. J. Yesudas.

His first feature film score and soundtrack was for Chotta Mumbai, directed by Anwar Rasheed and starring Mohanlal in the lead. His second release was Suresh Gopi's Time directed by Shaji Kailas. Shankar Mahadevan, an Indian playback singer, sang for him in his debut work, Chotta Mumbai.

In 2008, he replaced the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy as the composer of the Malayalam feature film Maya Bazar, in which he worked with the Tamil film production company Ayngaran International. In the same year, he became the first music composer in Malayalam filmdom to have a registered fans' association, called RRFA (Rahul Raj Fans Association), based in Thiruvananthapuram.

Rahul Raj mingling with the crowd during a live concert.

In 2009, he composed for filmmaker Shyamaprasad's Ritu, for which he subsequently won the Vayalar Award. The award was given by a jury of old school musicians including K.P. Udayabhanu. He introduced techniques like the counterpoint to modern Malayalam film music, through his soundtrack for the motion picture Ritu.

In 2010, he won the Kerala State Award for Best Background Score for Ritu. The same year, he was invited to University at Buffalo, The State University of New York to rework and expand Pomp and Circumstance Marches, the traditional convocation music used by them, composed by Sir Edward Elgar. In addition to expanding Edward Elgar's piece, he composed two original music pieces for the convocation, Dance of the Gods and The Circumstance by Rahul Raj.^[6]

Rahul Raj (Right extreme) at the Triple Platinum Disc celebration of the music of Oh My Friend (Telugu)

In 2011, Rahul Raj made his debut in Telugu cinema by composing music for the Siddharth – Shruti Haasan starrer Oh My Friend.^[7] The audio of the film opened to overwhelming responses and rave reviews, climbing to the No. 1 position in Telugu music charts, with the song "Maa Daddy Pockets" in particular becoming a rage among the youth. The audio went on to mark record sales of 3 lakh CDs within nine days of release.^[8]

After almost a two-year hiatus, in 2012 he returned to the Malayalam industry by scoring for Amal Neerad's Bachelor Party. The songs became sensational hits and the background score received critical acclaim.^[9][10]

In 2013, he composed for Kili Poyi , which was supposedly the first stoner film in Malayalam Cinema. Though the film opened to mixed responses, the title song became a huge hit.^[11] Several critics hailed the background score as the most interesting technical aspect of the movie.^[12][13]

Rahul Raj had a dull opening in 2014 with the high budget romantic comedy London Bridge and Mannar Mathai Speaking 2 the much hyped sequel to the cult comedy classic Mannar Mathai Speaking failing at the box office. Rahul had composed only three tracks for London Bridge, as he had to leave the project owing to scheduling conflicts. Later in the year, the Telugu film Paathshala for which he had composed, became a box office success. Rahul's songs for the movie were received well,^[14][15] but it was his background score that was unanimously praised by all reviewers, as a major plus point, crediting it to have elevated the movie to a different level.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]}

The year 2015, opened on a favourable note for Rahul, as his background score for the Mammootty starrer Fireman received unanimous praise, with the movie subsequently becoming a box office success.^{[27][28][29][30]} His second release of the year was Sidhartha Siva's Ain which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam.

His upcoming projects for the year are, an untitled Mohanlal starrer directed by B. Unnikrishnan^[31] and IDI - Inspector Dawood Ibrahim directed by Sajid Yahiya in Malayalam, Jagadamba in Telugu, and another untitled film in Hindi.^[32][33]

Orchestration

Rahul Raj is known for giving ultra-modern orchestration in his songs. He uses international elements for the instrumentation in his songs. His background scores in particular are rich with elements of symphony and Western Classical music.^[34]

Film discography

Note: '•' Indicates Language of original production; others being dubbed releases.

Awards and nominations

As President of FEFKA Music Directors' Union

In 2013, Rahul Raj was designated as the President of the FEFKA Music Directors' Union, the official association of film composers in the Malayalam film industry.^[40][41]

References

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/the-right-scores/article473086.ece

External links

• Official website
• Rahul Raj at the Internet Movie Database